BRITAIN MOVES TRIDENT SUB INTO PERSIAN GULF IN MAJOR ESCALATION OF WAR
PREPARATIONS AGAINST IRAQ

by Globel-Intel

Number 9, March 21, 2002

"BRITAIN MOVES NUCLEAR SUB INTO PERSIAN GULF TO BEEF
UP PREPARATIONS FOR WAR ON IRAQ

by Gordon Thomas (EXCLUSIVE)

Britain has moved one of its Trident nuclear submarines into
the Persian Gulf. It is a significant escalation of the preparations for the
widely predicted war against Iraq.

The Trident carries a pay-load of missiles capable of destroying
every military target in Iraq.

At least one U.S. nuclear weapon-carrying submarine is also
said to be in the region.

The decision to move the Trident from its regular patrol area
in the southern Indian Ocean was authorized by Prime Minister Tony Blair after
meeting with Vice-President Dick Cheney during his stop-over in London.

London intelligence sources report that Blair needed no convincing
that it was appropriate to have the Trident in place.

The submarine was already on the move  at flash
speed says a Naval source  while Cheney was on his way to the
Middle East to brief Arab leaders on the options for war with Saddam Hussein.

The first hint that the Trident was cleared for action came
from UK Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon. He told a crowded House of Commons that
Britain is ready to make a retaliatory nuclear strike against Iraq if Saddam
uses weapons of mass destruction against British or U.S. forces.

Later Hoon briefed a top U.S. Defence Committee on the time-table
for war. He said it was coming closer by the day.

Britains willingness to confirm its readiness to use
nuclear weapons is seen as a clear signal that both the UK and Washington
are alarmed that Saddam is poised to launch a bio-chemical attack.

Intelligence sources have said that while there is undoubted
conflict within the UK defence establishment  with the Foreign Office
calling for restraint  the signs are that Blair feels Saddam poses such
a threat that it has to be met with a strong response  even a nuclear
one.

But as Cheney headed home he knew there was little support
from Arab nations for an attack on Saddam.

Even Mossad sources say there is as yet no solid evidence.

London defence analyst John Casey, writing in the conservative
Daily Telegraph said: Saddams main relation with Islamic radicals
has been to fight them. There is no evidence anything has changed. He fought
Iran for eight years  with very useful help from the CIA, who gave him
regular satellite updates on the battlefield dispositions of Iranian troops.

Now those satellites will be scouting for targets for that
Trident nuclear submarine.

Gordon Thomas is a writer on intelligence for a number of leading
European newspapers (the Sunday Express, UK; El Mundo, Spain; Welt am Sonntag,
Germany). His work is also syndicated internationally by World Wide Syndication.
Any use of the above must carry a clear attribution to both Gordon Thomas
and Globe-Intel. He is a Contributing Editor to Globe-Intel, an international
newsletter devoted to intelligence matters.